Miami Heat and LeBron James were on the brink of being knocked out and the nation wanted to watch, which is why the television ratings for Game 6 were the highest for a Game 6 in 11 years (the first of the Lakers three-pete titles with Shaq and Kobe).

(Look, I’d love to think America tuned in to watch the smart and efficient basketball of the Mavericks, that they finally get how special Dirk Nowitzki is, but frankly I don’t have that much faith in the American public. These are the same people who buy shape up shoes and watch the Kardashians.)

Game 6 generated a 15 rating (meaning about 15 percent of all television in the nation were tuned to the game), which is up from the 12.3 last year when traditional powerhouses (and larger television markets) Los Angeles and Boston were going at it. The 15 was the highest of any finals game this season and any of he first six from last season (Game 7 last year drew an 18.3).

That game caps off a playoffs and full regular season that saw ratings in the league up, saw interest in the league increase. There is a real momentum. It’s the one reason to hope the lockout gets solved before games are lost — that would kill everything that has been built. Both sides give lip service to that idea, but we’ll see what happens when the negotiations face deadlines.

People around the nation are celebrating at the demise of the Miami Heat. The narrative that it is poetic justice for a team of veterans that played smart and was better than the sum of their parts would defeat the Heat seemed like poetic justice for many.

But Miami will be back. They are only going to get better.

With very few exceptions in this league, teams (and players) need to learn how to win at the highest levels. We think of Michael Jordan’s Bulls as mythic and forget the three years in a row they got smacked down by the Pistons in the playoffs before they won. Front offices learn what roster tweaks need to be made — Miami has a lot of those — and players learn lessons about sacrifice and stepping up on the biggest stage.

Miami just learned some hard lessons. Ones they can apply in future years.

For one, they have three great players — LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh — and three solid rotation guys (Udonis Haslem, Mike Miller and Mario Chalmers). After that… nothing. Pat Riley had to put together a roster of minimum players after putting together those top five and Chalmers, and it showed. In every finals you need the unexpected guy to step in and make plays — Brian Cardinal made key plays for Dallas, as did Ian Mahinmi — and the Heat had no guys capable of that on the roster.

Now Riley has another summer to put in role players that fit, and guys will want to come for the chance at a ring. Exactly who and how is impossible to say until we see what the new Collective Bargaining Agreement looks like, but Riley will find a way.

Also, the Heat players also are learning how to trust one another.

When Dallas stepped up its defensive pressure, LeBron seemed to get passive and the movement off the ball would come and go. Remember the late first quarter turnover where DeShawn Stevenson decided to put some light pressure on LeBron in the back court, then rather than just blow past him LeBron froze, picked up his dribble and tried to throw the ball to Mike Miller, who was not looking? Miami had a whole Game 6 of that. They looked completely out of synch.

On the other end, did it ever seem like Dallas took a bad shot in this series? When one Heat defender would over-help on rotations (which happens a lot with them) there would be two quick passes and Miami would pay by watching Dallas get an open look. Dallas adjusted to the athletic wings of Miami and started to hit shots with the closeouts coming as the series wore on.

Miami never came close to that kind of team efficiency. There were flashes of it, little spurts. But if they were kept in the half court it was spotty. The Heat stars played next to each other not off each other.

That is not on coach Erik Spoelstra — he does not design plays that have guys standing around off the ball. He did his job, but the veteran Mavs executed their coach’s plan in a way the Heat did not. Spoelstra will grow and win a lot with this team if Miami gives him the chance. They should. But there is a lot of pressure there to win fast, so who knows.

Miami will be back. This is not the best we will see of them. Their key players are in their primes, they will get better playing together (we saw that even during the playoffs) and the players around them will improve. This is not the last you’ll see of the Heat.

Dirk Nowitzki was having one of those nights. Dallas needed to win Game 7 (they didn’t want to give Miami life) and their star and best scorer couldn’t find his rhythm.

Enter Jason Terry.

The former Sixth Man of the Year came in and started to light it up, hitting everything on his way to 19 first half points (and 27 for the game). Just watch, he had his jumper going and because of that he doesn’t need to get the tattoo of the Larry O’Brien trophy on the inside of his arm removed.

But the league is going to review the tape from an altercation that started between DeShawn Stevenson and Udonis Haslem in the second quarter. If someone did leave the bench to enter the fray they could face a fine and be suspended at the start of next season (whenever that is).

“A player will not automatically be suspended for leaving the bench if he has already left the bench because a timeout was called,” league spokesman Tim Frank says in a statement. “However, we need to review the circumstances of this particular incident, which we will do, after the game.”

The incident happened in the second quarter. The Heat had hit a shot as part of a little run and so a timeout was called. Stevenson thought Haslem was in his way as the two went to the bench, they bumped into each other then started facing up and jawing. Pretty soon there was a crowd. Mario Chalmers rushed in as the third person and seemed to escalate things, but he had been in the game.

Anytime a player levees a bench to enter a fight there is an automatic suspension. However, guys were already coning out to the floor so it creates a muddy area.

It wasn’t really that big a deal, nothing anyone should be suspended for really. But you know how the league loves to watch tape on these things.